Bruton fits centuries of building into a small town on the River Brue: medieval and Tudor cottages, Georgian townhouses, Victorian terraces and mills and barns turned into homes. We inspect, repair, rewire and upgrade the electrics in all of them, and this year carried out a landlord inspection and full remedials in the town itself.
Most people know Bruton for King's School, Hauser & Wirth Somerset and the Dovecote. For an electrician the interest is in the buildings between them. The old core has medieval and Tudor cottages with low ceilings, deep window reveals and very few straight voids. Further out come Georgian townhouses with tall rooms over several floors, rows of Victorian terraces, and a number of mills and barns that have been converted to homes.
Each type behaves differently once the floorboards come up. A Tudor cottage may have timber framing where you expect masonry, so cable routes have to be worked around the structure rather than through it. A Victorian terrace usually keeps its board under the stairs and runs its circuits front to back along a narrow plan. A converted mill can be large and open, with the supply arriving at one end and the living space at the other. We price after seeing the property for exactly this reason: two houses with the same number of bedrooms can need very different amounts of work.
This year we carried out a five-year landlord EICR on a rented house in Bruton. The report came back with the kind of findings older houses tend to produce:
A C1 or C2 makes the report unsatisfactory, so none of this could be left. We carried out the remedial work, cleared every coded item, re-tested and issued updated certification so the landlord had a satisfactory report to give the tenants. We later went back to put in loft lighting.
The landlord's legal position is set out in the 2020 private rented sector regulations: inspection at intervals of no more than five years, the report to existing tenants within 28 days, and remedial or further investigative work completed within 28 days of the inspection (or sooner if the report says so), with written confirmation to the tenant and the local housing authority within 28 days of completion. Our landlord electrical compliance page for Bruton covers this in full, and the Bruton EICR page explains what the inspection itself involves.
The Bruton job is a fair picture of where problems sit in an older house. They are rarely in the middle of the living room. They are in the places nobody looks:
A proper inspection opens these up and tests every circuit, with the readings written down. If something is dangerous, we make it safe before we leave with your agreement.
A converted mill or barn is often bigger inside than it looks from outside. The electrical work usually involves long sub-main runs, a second board in a far wing or outbuilding, and lighting designed around open roof trusses. Outbuildings and garages need supplies in armoured cable and sockets that suit a workshop or store.
If the walls are old stone and the inside is being restored rather than replaced, our heritage rewires page for Bruton explains how we plan routes that do the least damage. For a general rewire, the Bruton rewires page sets out timings: a three-bedroom house is typically five to ten working days, and larger or period properties two to three weeks. A full rewire is priced after a survey, on the size, construction and access of the house. Charge points at these properties are covered on our EV charger installation page for Bruton.
Beyond inspections and rewires, the pages most Bruton customers need are:
We cover the High Street and Plox, St Catherine's, Lower Backway, Patwell Street, Frome Road, Redlynch, Brewham, Pitcombe, Wyke Champflower and Batcombe, all on the same terms as the town itself.
Batcombe is one of Bruton's neighbouring villages and is built almost entirely of period stone, with the tower of St Mary's church at its centre. That makes most electrical work there a question of routes: how to get new cable into a house with solid walls and old plaster without unnecessary damage. Inspections, board replacements and sympathetic rewires are the usual requests. Our Batcombe page covers the village and its hamlets in more detail.
Evercreech lies about 3.2 miles north-west of Bruton, with St Peter's church tower at its heart. This year we replaced an older board in the village, where circuits shared RCDs, with a metal RCBO board, upgraded the main earthing and bonding, fitted interlinked mains smoke and heat alarms, and ran an armoured supply to the garage. The Evercreech area page covers that job and the rest of the parish.
Ditcheat sits beyond Evercreech, about 2.1 miles to its south-west, and is known as a racing-stables village. Properties with yards and stables need outdoor work done properly: lighting that suits a working yard, weatherproof sockets, and armoured supplies to stables and stores with their own protection at the board. The older houses in the village need the same attention as anywhere else in the area, starting with an inspection if the board or wiring has not been looked at for some years.
Cranmore is home to the East Somerset Railway heritage line, with Cranmore Tower on the ridge above. It lies about 3.0 miles north-east of Evercreech and about 3.1 miles east of Shepton Mallet. Homes there range from older stone properties to later houses, and the work we are asked about is the everyday mix: fuse board upgrades, extra sockets and lighting, interlinked smoke and heat alarms, and charge points where there is off-road parking with a safe cable route.
Real jobs from this year, with the village or town named and nothing else.
Every job here is priced individually. An inspection depends on the size of the installation and the number of circuits; a board change or a landlord visit depends on the property and what it needs. Remedial work found on an inspection is quoted in writing before we do it, and you get a fixed written price with VAT shown on its own line.
Leave your details and a line about the job. We will ring you back to talk it through and arrange a survey or a written price.
At intervals of no more than five years, or sooner if the last report says so. That comes from the Electrical Safety Standards in the Private Rented Sector and Social Rented Sector (England) Regulations 2020. A copy goes to each existing tenant within 28 days of the inspection and to any new tenant before they move in. Any remedial work the report requires must be done within 28 days, or sooner if the report says so.
C1 means danger present. With your agreement we make it safe before we leave, which might mean isolating a circuit or disconnecting a faulty appliance such as an immersion heater. The report will be unsatisfactory until it is put right. We then quote in writing for the remedial work, carry it out, re-test and issue updated certification.
In most cases, yes. We look for routes through floor and ceiling voids first, lift boards rather than cut plaster where we can, and plan any chases with you before they are made. Timber framing is worked around, not through. Small chases are made good. Where a route cannot be found without damage we talk through the options, such as a neat surface route, before starting.
Yes, we cover Bruton (BA10) including the High Street and the Hauser & Wirth quarter, plus Wyke Champflower, Redlynch, Pitcombe, Cole and Brewham. Further out we cover Batcombe, Evercreech, Ditcheat and Cranmore, all from our Mid Somerset base. We price the same way wherever you are in the area, with a written fixed price after a survey.
A switch or flex outlet that feels warm to the touch is worth having looked at. Immersion heaters draw a heavy current for long periods, and an old switch or loose connection can overheat. Switch it off at the switch if you can do so safely, and book a visit.
Priced by the job, not by the hour. A written, fixed price after a survey, NAPIT certification on every notifiable job.
07889 334849